The majority of Republican voters finally believe Republican presidential hopeful and billionaire Donald Trump will be their party’s nominee come November.
The Rasmussen Reports poll solidly confirms most voters believe the two likely nominees for the Republican and Democratic Party will be Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton.
The new survey of likely Republican voters found an overwhelming majority -- 89 percent -- now think the firebrand frontrunner is likely to win the GOP nomination.
More than half of the voters -- 67 percent -- say Trump’s nomination is very likely, a number which has jumped nearly 20 points from a previous survey conducted last week. Just two weeks ago, that number was at only 38 percent.
Democrats believe former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton is incredibly likely to become the party’s nominee, with 91 percent seeing her as the likely nominee. Nearly the same amount -- 84 percent -- of all likely voters see Clinton as the Democrats’ likely nominee.
Among all likely voters, 80 percent view Trump as the likely nominee, with over half of those voters (55 percent) saying it’s very likely Trump will become the nominee.
It’s been a long road to the GOP nomination, with the early primaries full of a crowded field of Republicans, including U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., and former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush.
Initially, many Republicans didn’t see Trump as the likely nominee, especially in Florida, where most insiders pushed heavily for a Rubio victory. Throughout the entire race, GOP elites had tried their hardest to squash or delay Trump’s nomination, but Trump quickly gathered steam across the country and has secured state after state in the Republican primaries.
After Bush dropped out of the race, much of Florida Republicans’ hopes rested on a Rubio victory, but the Florida senator backed out of the race to become president after losing the Florida primary. After that, only Trump, Ted Cruz, and John Kasich were left to duke it out for the nomination.
The Republican Party is now at a turning point where it will either have to accept Trump as the inevitable nominee. There have been rumors of a contested presidential convention, however, with many Republicans speculating Trump could actually lose out on the nomination, but the possibility of him winning outright is high.
Trump needs to win 49 percent of the remaining delegates to secure the nomination, which is around the same percentage he’s been winning all along.
In a matchup against Clinton, insiders have speculated Trump would lose against the Democratic frontrunner in a November matchup.
The survey of 1,000 Likely U.S. Voters was conducted on April 27-28, 2016 by Rasmussen Reports. The margin of sampling error is +/- 3 percentage points with a 95% level of confidence.
Reach reporter Allison Nielsen by email at allison@sunshinestatenews.com or follow her on Twitter: @AllisonNielsen.
